This disclosure relates to injection molded articles, and in particular to large, colored, injection molded articles with a glossy finish.
Many injection molded parts are painted after injection molding. The painting step provides a glossy, scratch resistant paint layer that enhances the esthetics of the article through the glossy color and the utility by providing scratch resistance. There is an increasing desire to eliminate the painting step to improve efficiency of the manufacturing process, decrease costs, and decrease the environmental impact of the article and the process of creating the article. To eliminate the painting step it must be possible to produce a glossy colored article by injection molding. However, injection molding an article having a glossy color and scratch resistance with minimal or no after molding processing has proved difficult. In addition, many articles must meet flame retardant guidelines which increases the difficulty of producing an article with all of the desired characteristics.
There accordingly remains a need in the art for a glossy colored article having scratch resistance in the absence of a paint layer and flame retardant properties.